Discontinued Model
- Picture quality isn't bad, but it isn't great either. Trigger speed is good, but it recovers in over 5 seconds. Many parts of the case design feel flimsy but the internal picture viewer is among our favorite we have seen. Too many negatives here for a full recommendation. - TCP Staff
Read our full review below.
Spypoint Force 12 Review
Model # Force-12 | Spypoint Force 12 Owners Manual
Pros
- Good trigger speed
- Great internal viewing screen
Cons
- Flimsy latches/battery cover
Trailcampro Analysis
Quality of Design
Dimensions: 5.25" x 4.25" x 3.75" | Battery Type: 6 AA Batteries | External Battery Jack: 12 Volt
This camera is small on height and width, but rather thick if you are using the detachable mount. The mount is flimsy, bends easily and in our opinion, over engineered. This is particularly noticeable when you take the bracket off, as we did, and the brackets to hold the straps on the back of the camera are very thin. They appear as if they could break with a simple over-tightening of the nylon mounting strap. Hopefully, looks are deceiving in this instance.
Not to beat a dead horse, but the entire camera feels flimsy and cheap. The plastic is thin and is most noticeable on the two latches that open and close the camera and the cameras battery cover.
The Force 12 has an internal 2.4" viewing screen for reviewing pictures/videos and camera setup. Viewers aren't as prevalent in the trail camera world anymore, so it was nice to see one again. This viewing screen made trail camera setup easy, simple and quick. It works great for reviewing pictures and videos as well. This is a big plus for the Force 12. With the handy viewer, we would have like to see some added programming options like SD card overwrite, password protection and infrared flash settings.
There is no built-in bracket for a python lock but the camera does have a 1/4 x 20 threaded insert on the bottom for a Slate River Mount.
In the past, we have had problems with durability on Spypoint cameras. Most of this has come from their wireless and cellular cameras. The Force 12 is neither of those and early reports on durability have been ok.
Detection Circuit
Picture Trigger & Recovery Speed: 0.62 s. / 5.1 s. | Video Trigger & Recovery Speed: 2.29 s. / 5.0 s. | Detection Range: 90 ft.
The trigger speed is good, but not great. The recovery time in both picture and video is middle of the road. Video trigger is on the slower side.
Detection Zone is wider than the field of field (pretty significantly) but it detected a whopping 90 ft. Overall, this detection zone is neither great nor bad. Very average.
Picture Quality
Photo resolution: 12 or 3 mpxl | Video Resolution: 1280 x 720 | Flash Type: No Glow Infrared
Day pictures continue to be below average. Spypoint pictures lack color. Until that changes the ratings will stay rather low. This camera also had quite a few red tinted pictures. This is presumably from the IR filter getting stuck.
Night pictures lack serious flash range but are rather crisp and have good contrast. There was quite a bit of blur on a good portion of the images, but at least there wasn't overexposure issues.
[powr-image-slider label="2965540"]
Videos at night have almost no flash. Night video is useless to us in the current state. Day videos are pretty good, in fact, they caught a few cute bears running through the path. You can check them out below.
Battery Life
Resting Power (on): 0.45 mW | Daytime Power Consumption: 3.45 Ws | Nighttime Power Consumption: 5.53 Ws
Battery life is going to be really good with such a low resting power. Day and night consumptions are both rock solid, the camera just stays powered on a little longer than some.
This camera operates on 6 AA batteries. If the Force 12 were to take 35 day and 35 night pictures every 24 hour period, it would last 7.7 months in the field on a set of lithium batteries.
Spypoint Force 12 Conclusion
This camera possesses too many weaknesses to be considered competitive to the competition. Night flash, speed and case design are all well below where it should be.
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Additional Resources: Spypoint Reviews